Friday, April 30, 2010

Day 40 Salamanca

Breakfast was in a room overlooking the Plaza Mayor, an unexpected plus. Our hotel provided a more extensive buffet than usual, actually featuring eggs (scrambled), something we have not seen for weeks.

After over 5 weeks on tour, my hair was direly in need of a trim. We had been looking for barbers since Barcelona, which was the last time we saw one. In the meantime we had only seen hair salons, mainly for women. I wasn't that keen on going to one of these so we asked reception for help. They told us where to go a few streets away, but it turned out to be a hair salon, not a barbers.

Desperate by this time, I bit my tongue and went in and was on the chair within a few minutes, being attended by the nice young woman. We soon established that I wanted her to use the electrical clippers rather than scissors, but that process did not go to her satisfaction as she had sprayed my hair rather too liberally. No matter, she reverted to the scissors and the job was done after about 15-20 minutes (my Italian barber takes no more than five minutes). Joan liked the outcome but when we later got back to the hotel (after passing a barber shop 100 m from the hotel!) I saw that I had a distinctly asymmetrical cut.

The day turned out to be another one dominated by Catholic institutions - the Cathedral and a monastery. The cathedral was actually two cathedrals in one where a larger late Gothic building was glued onto the side of the earlier Romanesque one. The two styles provided a very interesting contrast. We liked both structures and particularly appreciated the vaulting in the new church. The altar piece in the new one was over the top as usual, but the earlier one was quite beautiful, consisting of 55 small paintings. For Joan, the subsequent visit to the tower and roofs of the cathedral was her most vertigo-inducing experience yet.


We had lunch at another LP-recommended restaurant on Plaza Mayor because it had a good menu del dia. Joan fancied dining on the terrace so made ourselves comfortable, only to be told that the menu del dia was only available inside. This is another example of how they try to trap the tourists - the menu del dia is on display to lure you in, but then they give you the a-la-carte menu, with much higher prices. We ate on the first floor and as it turned out, we had a fine view of the plaza and a very nice meal and wine too. We're finally getting the hang of this eating gig.

After lunch and a siesta we visited the Iglesia-Convento San Esteban (St Stephens Monastery). It belongs to the Dominican order and seemed to be as richly endowed as the cathedrals. We particularly liked this church - late Gothic again, but very graceful. There was also a fine museum of religious artifacts from the Philippines and South America. The Dominican order was sent to the new world after the Jesuits had been expelled (we learned this on our SA trip two years ago). We had noticed the first appearance of distinctive bell towers here in Salamanca that we had also seen in Peru, and which were also familiar from countless western movies. They consist of a wall with one or three openings for hanging bells. It now seems likely that this style was introduced by the Dominicans.



After yet another siesta (we will really miss this lifestyle), we had dinner at another LP-recommended café around the corner from the one we ate at yesterday evening. This was another success.


We finished off the evening with a walk down to the illuminated monastery.

A word about storks: I have had a long fascination with these beautiful birds and can't stop photographing them. We had seen them in other cities in Spain, notably Segovia, but Salamanca seems to be their home town as they can be seen nesting on every kind of tower or high structure imaginable. Some buildings even have specially constructed platforms to accommodate their large nests. Today I was lucky and got some decent shots of them in flight - I just held the shutter release down and hoped for the best.


This may be our last blog for a while, as we will soon be in Paris where we have much to do, friends/relatives to catch up with, and no siesta time.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Day 39 Salamanca

Despite our worries about the bells, we had a very quiet and peaceful night. The town fathers must have decreed this as the last peel was at midnight and the next one not until 7:15.

Our bus to Salamanca wasn't until early afternoon so we were able to do some more sightseeing. Our first destination was the aqueduct, to see it in daylight. We walked the back streets to get there, and as is typical in these old city centres with their narrow streets running in all directions, almost every time you turn a corner there is a little plaza and another interesting old building to marvel at. It was good to see the aqueduct in good light and the shadows on the other side formed an interesting pattern. After returning to the hotel to check out by noon, we left our bags and went for another wander around the back streets, this time walking along the northern section of the old city wall, which we had completely to ourselves.



We returned to the Plaza Mayor (not Major as I have previously written) to buy some food for the trip and to have a few drinks - it was over 33° by this time. While we were sitting in the square with our drinks we observed that preparations were underway for something at the grandstand in the middle. We soon noticed too that there were an unusually large number of different types of police in attendance - Joan counted over a dozen (usually not more than one or two). The reason for this vigilance soon became clear as we heard music coming from one of the side streets. Going over to find out more, I saw that it was a demonstration of some kind, probably by agricultural workers protesting that they didn't cause the world economic crisis. They made their way around the square and were addressed by their leaders.


As we made our way into the hotel to retrieve our luggage, when there was an almighty bang in the square - a huge firecracker, thank goodness. While sitting in the square we had become concerned by the lack of taxis at the rank in one corner - we had always seen some there, and this was our intended way of getting to the bus station. After waiting ten minutes or so, the more nervous (or foresightful) of was about to go the hotel to ask them to call for one. Instead, I approached one of the senior policemen and asked why there were no taxis. From his response I gleaned that they had caused this to avoid problems in the streets the taxis would otherwise use. Joan was about to go to the hotel when he stopped her and motioned her to wait. He then proceeded to make arrangements on his radio for a taxi to come and get us. I heard him make reference to signores mayores (senior citizens!) to help expedite the request. What great service! What great memories we have of the helpful people in Segovia.

The bus trip was a sort of all-stopper ranging over rolling farmland and stopping to drop off passengers in quite small places. I was a little annoyed as our road ran parallel to motorways for much of the distance which of course would have been considerably faster. The slow road has its charm too though. For most of the journey the route ran along the range of mountains we had seen in Segovia and there was still quite a lot of snow in the upper elevations. This has been a great surprise to us as we had never perceived Spain, especially the lower half, to have landscapes with snow.

As we took a taxi from the bus station in Salamanca, we noticed black ribbons on the radio antennae of all the cabs. I tried to enquire of the driver why this was so, and he explained in great detail the murder of one of his colleague two days earlier, confirming the story we had heard in Segovia. We expressed our sympathy, which we think he appreciated, as he rounded the fare down to the nearest Euro.

After checking in at the hotel, directly around the corner from the Plaza Mayor (again), we did a reconnoiter walk to familiarize ourselves with the city layout. Salamanca is much bigger than Segovia and the old town has a wealth of large old buildings. The standouts are the old/new cathedral combo, the university buildings (that look like churches) and the Plaza Mayor, which is particularly striking lit up at night.



Having previously had success with the LP's eating recommendation, we tried our luck again and were delighted to have a good three course meal with bread and wine for €10 each. This is more like it!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Day 38 Segovia

We woke up with our feet miraculously cured - no pain. Our train journey was short and sweet - only 25 minutes. It went right through, i.e. under, the snow capped mountains we had seen on our way to El Escorial several days earlier. This was quite a long tunnel - 3 or 4 Km and I wondered that they would bother for a route to such a small city as Segovia.

On exiting the platform we noticed several armed paramilitary guys of  a sort we had not seen before. They were searching the bags of two young guys of non-Spanish appearance. We had wanted to take a taxi into town but there were none, so we made do very nicely with a public transport bus, for the princely sum of €1.92 for both. As we got on the bus, the two young men came up behind us and asked Joan in English where the bus was going. It turned out that they were (sub-continent) Indian boys who had Canadian accents and hailed from Toronto. They seemed to more amused than offended by the racial profiling treatment they had received. On the outskirts of the modern town we saw an army tank on a low rise not 50m from the road, with its huge gun pointing directly at traffic on the road. This was a little disconcerting. 

The bus dropped us not where we wanted to be but we soon located a taxi rank with at least half a dozen idle taxis, but we had to wait a few minutes. On the way the driver explained that it was out of respect for a taxi driver who had been murdered in Salamanca the night before. We had earlier thought we might be able to wheel our bags to the hotel but we were soon disabused of that fantasy, as it was a little longer and more uphill (over cobblestones) than we had imagined. It was a lovely ride and we were getting good vibes from the town when we were dropped right at out hotel.

On preparing to enter the hotel, I had a heart-stopping moment - I was missing my wallet! In the taxi After doing the obvious patting of pockets and looking on the ground, I went back into the street only to see the taxi disappearing around a corner in the distance. Wild gesticulation did no good at all, so we rushed into the hotel with the intent of getting reception to call the taxi company. Our attempts to get the receptionist's attention were unproductive as she was on the phone. Interrupting her did not good either - "please wait". I
n hindsight, here's what happened. I had been juggling a bunch of coins in one hand and the wallet in the other. I paid the man in coins and in order to choose the coins I must have put the wallet down and forgotten about it.

When she was ready I explained my predicament and pointed on the map to where we had hired the taxi. She was very calm and efficient and was through to the taxi company in no time and several minutes later she reported that we were in luck - it had been found, and that the driver would bring it to the hotel. Later in the afternoon we were relieved to discover that he was a man of his word. That was another close call. We doubt we would have been as lucky in Madrid.

In the meantime we checked/ in and went to our room on the top floor. We have an excellent view of the Plaza Major below and the cathedral on one side bathed in glorious sunlight.This is by far the best room we have had and it is made even better by the knowledge that Joan had got it at a very favourable rate.


Lunch was a another success at a completely empty restaurant just down the street from the hotel. It had an old world formal ambience with a very reasonable Menu del Dia, and waiters in black and white uniform. One other couple did also come in and they were seated next to us which seemed strange in an otherwise empty room.

Suitably mellowed by the included jug of wine, we made our way to the Alcazar at one end of the old town. We had already read that Walt Disney had based one of his castles on this structure, but were nonetheless just amazed as it hove into view. It has a fantastic vertical front façade with all sorts of towers and very deep moat on either side of the drawbridge. Unlike almost everywhere else, admission here was quite reasonable. Despite it being restored, unlike Toledo, it had an authentic feel. The interior was filled with grat exhibits and was beautifully decorated. Although there were other visitors, we could enjoy most of the rooms completely alone - no minders to be seen anywhere. There were many suits of armour and cannons on display (an artillery school is based on the outskirts of town, hence the tank), but also good paintings and stained glass. We climbed the 152 steps up the tower spiral staircase (many steps were quite hight, making for quite a workout), but the view from the battlements was worth every step. We really enjoyed touring this place.



Next we wandered through the old town, including the Juderia and couldn't resist going into yet another cathedral which turned out to be a fine late gothic structure. It amazes us that what was then a town of only several tens of 1000's  could afford to build such a massive structure, in only 45 years.



After a late siesta, we set out for the evening paseo, along a very easy-walking smooth road down to the Roman aqueduct,. It was an amazing sight to see this ancient structure in the middle of a "modern" town. It is higher (guesstimate 25m) than we would have thought. We walked along its length and were pleased as we got ever better perspectives as we went. The best was when we ascended the stairs at one end up onto the city wall where there was a viewing platform that afforded the best views across to the aqueduct.


Segovia is a humming little city and is a real delight to be in - much better in our view than Toledo. Among other things, there are fewer of us awful tourists here. We ventured into an LP-recommended pub for tapas and enjoyed a drink and a plate of calamari.



We are writing this in our room with the French doors open to the night time view of the plaza, which has sprouted outdoor restaurants since we went out. We are so pleased with this hotel and its location. We are only staying one night, but wish it was two or three. The main downside is the loud town clock which is directly opposite our room on the other side of the plaza. It multi-chimes the quarter hours with a full sequence on the hour, so even though the doors are double-glazed, we may have a less than peaceful sleep. Consuming our own bottle of wine may help.